LAHORE, April 25: The Punjab University claimed in the Lahore High Court on Friday that PML-N’s returned candidate from PP-156 (Lahore) in the last general elections had filed a bogus graduation degree with the returning officer.

PML-Q’s Haroon Akhtar Khan had challenged the election of the PML-N’s Sheikh Amjad Aziz, alleging that the latter had attached a bogus BSc degree (showing him a distinction holder in mathematics) with his nomination papers.

According to the petitioner, his rival candidate did not even clear his intermediate examination in which he was failed twice in mathematics paper, and his graduation degree was a clear-cut forgery.

He also questioned the validity of an FIR filed with the relevant returning officer, saying he had lost all his original certificates, including that of BSc, on the last day of filing his nomination. However, the returning officer allowed him to contest the elections on the basis of a photocopy of the BSc result card, the petitioner added.

Punjab University registrar Masoodul Haq, while appearing as witness, tendered the university record. He claimed that Sheikh Amjad was never issued a BSc degree and the university record did not show that he ever appeared in a BSc examination. He said the accused had contested the elections on the basis of forged degree.

Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education record superintendent Muhammad Ishfaq deposed that the PML-N returned candidate had failed in his intermediate examination twice and did not appear the third time. He also said the accused had appeared in the annual examination of intermediate in 1984, and failed in the mathematics paper. He appeared in the supplementary examination the same year, but again failed.

The witness testified that there was no evidence available with the BISE’s record to show whether the candidate made the third attempt. The respondent’s counsel inquired from him if he was aware of Sheikh Amjad’s arrest in 1984 made on the orders of Gen Ziaul Haq and his subsequent confinement at the Kot Lakhpat jail during which he gave the intermediate examination. The witness said the official record did not contain any such facts.

Punjab University’s former deputy controller (examination) Abdul Ghaffar owned his signatures on the official notification of the result issued to the respondent regarding his BSc result. He, however, refused to own his signatures on the result intimation card issued to the respondent, saying the document shown to him was a photocopy of the original and he could only recognize his signatures if the original version was placed before him.

PU counsel Dr Basit acknowledged that under the university rules no candidate could opt for Mathematics (A,B)-statistics combination without clearing the mathematics paper in his intermediate examination.

The court issued warrants of the court secretary to the returning officer for not having produced the relevant record despite being summoned on the last hearing. It fixed May 13 for recording further evidence.